A community health nonprofit has parted ways with its founder and head, a defendant in the Feeding Our Future fraud case, according to a settlement announced Friday by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
Action for East African People, a nonprofit that operates Action Care Community Clinic, a free dental clinic in Bloomington, dismissed its founder and executive director, Ayan Abukar, and her daughter, Deqo Siraj.
Federal prosecutors indicted Ayan Abukar last year on charges of bribery, money laundering, and more in the Feeding Our Future case, in which a large group of people stole an alleged $250 million in federal food-aid dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic. In her indictment, prosecutors say Action for East African People received close to $6 million in federal dollars meant to be used to feed children from low-income families.
Ayan Abukar and her co-conspirators used much of the money on personal purchases, including $1.5 million toward a 37-acre plot of land in Lakeville and $250,000 toward a Magnus airplane, according to charges against her.
The Attorney General’s Charity Division launched an investigation of Action for East African People shortly after Ayan Abukar’s indictment was filed in March 2023.
In its findings, the Attorney General’s Charity Division said that Action for East African People sent more than $1.6 million to companies that Ayan Abukar or her family members headed. This includes more than $725,000 to a company run by her son, Abdirahman Siraj. County property tax records list Abdirahman Siraj as the owner of the 37-acre parcel in Lakeville.
Neither Deqo nor Abdirahman Siraj are defendants in the Feeding Our Future case, although Abdirahman is described as an unindicted co-conspirator in Ayan Abukar’s indictment.
The Attorney General’s settlement doesn’t directly tie its findings to the federal Feeding Our Future fraud case.In a prepared statement, Ellison said his office is continuing an investigation of Action for East African People into “improper use of … charitable assets.”
He added that the settlement protects the dental clinic run by Action for East African People while “immediately separating” the “bad actors that took advantage of their organization and the community it is supposed to serve.”
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“The work that Action for East African People does by operating a dental clinic for uninsured and underinsured people is very important,” Ellison said.
Neither Action for East African People nor an attorney for Ayan Abukar returned Sahan Journal’s phone calls or email messages seeking comment Friday afternoon.
Action for East African People previously blocked Ayan Abukar and Deqo Siraj’s access to the nonprofit’s financial accounts, according to Ellison’s news release announcing the settlement.
The nonprofit initially didn’t cooperate with Ellison’s investigation, according to the news release, but is now ordered to do so as part of the settlement. The settlement also requires Action for East African People to train its board members “about their duties under state law,” perform “a full accounting” of all its assets, and hire new lawyers with no ties to Ayan Abukar to represent it.
To date, 70 defendants have been charged in the Feeding Our Future case, and 17 of them have pleaded guilty. The first trial in the case, which involves eight defendants, is scheduled to begin in April.
